fluffy blueberry & banana pancakes with a dash of oats

I wasn’t going to let World Pancake Day go unnoticed around here especially since I’ve been working on this recipe for a while. I got a bee in my bonnet in December when I landed up randomly searching for the fluffiest pancake on the Internet and stumbled across a few claiming to be just that. Most seemed to involve beating the egg whites to get the aeration. I have always done this and always loved my blueberry & ricotta pancakes with a hint of orange, which have a lovely density while still remaining fluffy in texture. Then I found Smitten Kitchens recipe for tall AND fluffy buttermilk pancakes and I was immediately intrigued. This is one of my absolute all-time fave cooking sites and trust Deb Perelman implicitly when she says she has tested dozens of recipes. This recipe of hers comes from the legendary Fannie Farmer (circa the late 1800’s) and it looked almost too easy to be true with no whipping of egg whites. Because I find blueberries essential to a pancake I had to add them in.

The first time I made the recipe I followed it almost to a T. I thought it needed a splash more buttermilk than the recipe but it was almost disconcertingly thick. The result however was definitely the tallest pancake I had ever encountered and one that showed no sigh of collapsing after a few hours (yes, a few lasted that long). They are so thick you need to finish off the cooking with a short stint in the oven.

On my second attempt I wanted to play around with oat flour – essentially ground up oats. I wanted the texture and flavour and just because its healthy and more breakfasty. They came out really well too. I did change all the ratios and added chia seeds because it’s a super food and I try to eat as much of it as is possible. On the third attempt I used the recipe as a base to make banana pancakes for a client shoot and swapped out the sugar for stevia, the buttermilk for almond milk and mashed banana, the butter for oil and it was a pretty successful pancake. One thing is for sure; this is a fantastic recipe to adapt and put your own twist on.

With these three trials under my belt I wanted to come up with a pancake that was fluffy and delicious and that didn’t require any oven time. I wanted to add some oat flour and of course the blueberries. My decision to add some banana sort of happened at the last-minute when I realized I was on the path to messing up the recipe.

It was a Sunday and I was a little distracted and used the ½ cup measure instead of the ¼ cup to measure my dry ingredients. Luckily this was easily resolved because it was literally double the quantity so a doubled the rest of the ingredients in the recipe. I saw the banana getting to that perfect ripe stage in my fruit bowl so thought what the hell, lets throw that in too. I used a whole one for this double batch, so I’m going list it as half for the smaller quantity recipe below. Just eat the other half, or double up the batch. You could also leave it out totally. I am super happy with the result even though they are not as tall as the original recipe.

You can get all next level and add a tablespoon or two of chia seeds to the mix. The stuff is loaded with fibre and we should all just be eating more of it.

Pancakes should be served with lashings of maple syrup but honey is another good option. I like them with extra berries and a dollop or three of full fat Greek yoghurt too.

Recipe – makes about 14 small pancakes or 7 bigger ones

2 Tbsp butter – melted but only just

2 Tbsp sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

1 free-range egg

¾ cup flour

¼ cup oat four (ground up oats to a rough flour consistency)

(otherwise just use 1 cup flour)

½ cup buttermilk

½ banana that has been well mashed (add about 1/4 cup buttermilk if you omit the banana)

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup blueberries

Beat the butter, egg, sugar and vanilla until well combined. Whisk in salt, mashed banana and buttermilk. Add the flour, oat flour, pinch of salt and baking soda and fold lightly until it has all combined.

Lightly fold in the blueberries ensuring that you don’t break up or arrange them onto each pancake once in the pan.

Heat a non-stick frying pan and add a small amount of butter to coat. Once this is bubbling, dollop about ¼ cup of the mixture in mounds in the pan, and fry over a medium heat until golden brown on each side. Flip the pancakes once bubbles start appearing on the surface.